not much to say about this chapter. It's a lot longer than the first three...um, I've done a lot of adjustment to it...um...yeah, that's about it. So, I hope you enjoy it as much as I personally did: )
Chapter Four: Living Color Tends to Dull My Sight
Riley's POV
"Riley DeSoto, you are the most irresponsible twit this hospital has ever had to take in!" Dr. Brackett yelled at me. As he always did. Look, all I did was accidently drop a chart out the window. He should've been happy I didn't fall out...
"And you're wearing an ugly tie..." Oh, and I am today's reciever of Dr. Brackett's famous death glare... "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were playing a game...I'm very competitive..." So much for covering my mistake. It really was an ugly tie...
"You better hope for the sake of your job that chart was not ruined..." he growled. I admit, I had been making Dr. Brackett's life a living hell. And it had only been four days...And I assure everyone out there that I'm well suited for this job. I just have a few less than suitable qualities. But I'm still mad that he's flipping out about that chart. He could've atleast asked if I was alright when I almost fell out. How was I supposed to know that the window was open?
I didn't know what else to do as he stormed out of the elevator beyond kick my feet. If I was provoked, I could pull one hell of a silent treatment. I could also throw a temper tantrum that would make any five year old proud. Yes, the bumbling, sarcastic Riley DeSoto has talents. "Riley, what did you do this time?" Dixie asked knowingly as I began to make my way down the hall. Apparently, I wasn't the only one Kel was taking his anger out on right now.
"I only almost fell out of a window..." I grumbled.
"Are you alright?" see, someone cares!
"Yeah, I only dropped the chart for Mr. McDowell," I replied. Hey, I can also remember the names of patients add that to my list of talents.
"Yeah, one of my nurses found it outside. I figured it had something to do with you, though I wasn't sure if it wasn't intentional," she said, handing me the chart. Which wasn't damaged in the slightest way.
"Nothing's lost?" I asked, just to make sure. She gave me that smile of her's before shaking her head. "Thank you Dixie, you're a true lifesaver."
"Well, keeping things in tact in the hospital is one of my favorite things," she said before turning on her heel and walking down the hall. Dixie really was a wonderful woman. Now, it was time to see if Dr. Brackett would forgive me and stop rampaging through the hospital, squishing everyone with that God-like big toe of his...For all the men with God Complexes I had seen, his really takes the cake.
And, I may have made it to Dr. Brackett's office if it hadn't been for the man that came staggering in. From the way he was staggering, I would've expected him to be drunk. "Sir, are you alright?" I asked, takinga minor detour...I would still go talk to Dr. Brackett...after I checked on this man
All I got outta the man, though, were incoherent mumbles. I proceeded to do my civic duty and helped him to a gurny. "Here, sit up here. Nurse! Get me Doctor Brackett!" I yelled to a nurse who was on her way down the hall. This was a dire situation. This man couldn't even function properly. Of course, the second Dr. Brackett rounded the corner, the man decided to lash out. Which is probably how I got elbowed in the eye and ended up on the floor feeling suddenly dizzy.
And then the man ran off and tried to strangle Dr. Brackett. He was doing a relatively good job until security got ahold of him. Well, I wanted excitement, I got it. Kel rubbed his probably very sore neck as the security guards managed to strap the entirely erratic and over-reacting patient to a gurney. "Well, Doctor, any idea towards a diagnosis?" Kel asked as we both managed to collect ourselves.
"Well," I rolled back my shoulder. "We can safely rule out alcohol and drugs..."
"Oh? And why's that?" he asked. I may have a few talents up my sleeve, yet. And this was one of those cases that became apparent.
"I pulled his wallet when he first lashed out...Johnathan Weaver...a mental patient with severe schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder," I replied with a smirk as I showed him Mr. Weaver's patient ID card. "I would suggest 5 milligrams of haldol, it outta calm him down..."
"Great, not only are you irresponsible, but you're a pick pocket..." he muttered, taking the wallet from me and wandering off to his new patient. "Get him into two. Nurse, give him five milligrams haldol!" Kel ordered professionally. I just stood in the middle of the hall, wondering how big my black eye would be. And I just sorta watched him stand outside the door, staring at the card in that man's wallet. And I was curious to know what had him staring.
"What?" I finally stepped up and asked him.
"This man is an outpatient...what could cause him to have an outbreak like this?" he asked quietly. I took the wallet and wandered over to the nurse's station to inspect it further as he moved into the treatment room to do his doctorly business. I turned out several things, a picture of a woman from three years ago, a piece of paper with 'They are Coming' scribbled all over it, and a prescription for an anti-psychotic written earlier that day. And subconsciously, I had already begun coming up with a life's story for John Weaver. I had a tendency to do that by the way. For the anonymous people that wandered in, I gave them names and life's stories. Something to pass the time, I guess.
I used to think I'd be a great novelist...maybe I shoulda chose that as a profession instead of going to Med School...I don't know what drove me to this profession. Sure, I was a decent student in high school. Straigh A student, actually. Jamie wasn't that good with her grades though. Mom reserved one side of the refridgerator for Jamie's art, one side for my tests. Roy never wanted mom to hang anything up of his. Anytime she did, he took it back down. But I still can't figure out what it was that drove me to become a doctor. Maybe it was a hidden need to help people bursting within me. Maybe it was wanting to see the looks on people's faces when I did something they weren't expecting. Hell, maybe I just wanted to be able to put myself into situations where I needed to be serious...
"Dr. DeSoto?" Dixie...
"Yeah?" I looked over at her, snapping out of whatever daze I had fallen into. It felt like waking up from a dream.
"Your eye is really starting to swell, maybe you should have Dr. Early check it out..." she said with that motherly tone of hers. I cracked a light smile.
"Ah, you really think I wanna try and get this healed? It's a battle scar!" I waved it off with my hand. She shook her head, giving me the notion that I was hopeless. "Now I can go tell everyone how I single-handedly pinned down a man with a knife..."
"You didn't pin him down at all, and he didn't have a knife," Dr. Brackett cut in, stepping up to the desk and marking something down on a chart.
"Yeah, but it sounds so much cooler my way," I smiled, resting my chin in my palm as I stared at him. I had to admit, my left eye was starting to blur a little bit. No big deal, really. Just what a black eye feels like. Trust me, I've had enough of them in my time. I used to get into regular fights with the popular girls at school. It was my way of saying hey, I have enough of a hard time trying to impress my big brother, I don't need to impress you. And I think I only won two fights... "Anyway, I found this. It's a prescription, written today. He probably ran outta pills and couldn't contact his doctor, when he finally did, he was already in an episode, so he came here to save himself from any danger. Even crazy people can have rational thoughts you know..."
"You really are hopeless," Dr. Brackett told me.
"Well, just like I always say, when everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane..." I just rambled off a random quote I didn't even know I knew...things aren't making sense, I think the world's about to fall apart at the seams. I decided it was time for a coffee. And a break. Time for that big comfy chair in the coffee lounge. You know, they had really comfy chairs here. But they could be even more comfortable...
"Crossing the street...
Watching your feet
Or you'll die in a thunderbird light.
Wishing with all of you might
That you'd read the newspaper that you forgot to buy today...
How will you know what they do when they saaaaaay..." even my singing didn't seem to be on key. I don't know what happened. I was feeling just fine, and then I lost every ounce of enthusiasm. Oh my God...I was actually thinking serious thoughts.
"Dr. DeSoto?" ah, John Gage, the perfect victim to act as counsel for my distraught mind. If only I could get my serious thoughts into words that weren't discreetly coded.
"Ah, and Romeo has stepped out of my fantasy world and into reality, how you doin'?" I asked him, immediately wondering where Roy was. He frowned, as I much expected him to do.
"What happened to your eye?" he asked, pouring himself a coffee. The exact cup of coffee that I wanted for myself, but didn't have the money to buy. I should definately learn to start bringing money with me every day.
"Well, there I was when this stampede of wild zebra came barging through the emergency room doors and trampled everything in their path. In a heroic attempt to try to save a patient, I was trampled as well. Oh, John, if only you had been here, maybe you woulda been trampled and that horrifically handsome face of yours would have been trampled, too," if all else fails, insult him.
"Really? Dr. Brackett says you got elbowed by a schizophrenic patient," he stated, taking a sip of his coffee before sitting down. I just knew Dr. Brackett would ruin my fun...wait...if he already knew what happened, why did he ask?
"Who are you gonna believe, the person who has the black eye or some whack job doctor who got mad when someone almost fell out of a window?" I asked him, lifting my head from it's entirely comfortable position hanging over the back of the chair. And upon noting where he was, where his coffee was, and where my foot happened to be, I was very tempted to spill that coffee in his lap just for thinking that I had lied.
"I'm gonna go with the whack job doctor. There's all the possibility you could have a concussion. It looks pretty bad, maybe you should get it checked out," he's not the only person that thinks I have a concussion. But it wasn't caused by this accident. Sadly, it's been a permanent misfortune since I was a kid...
"And you should get your lips permanently sewn to my ass..." I mumbled, staring at that cup of coffee wanting more and more with every passing second to kick it, just to see how he would react. But, it's never a good thing to spill hot coffee on someone, so I just let my head sag back over the back of the chair again.
"Don't get so hostile, I was only trying to help..." he stated, throwing in a scoff for added effect.
"So was Joshua, and did you hear? The wall of Jericho came tumbling down..." I lifted my head to look at him again.
"Maybe you should try to not throw around your witty and sarcastic remarks and let someone help you. Who knows what could come of it, it may even be something nice..." he told me. Ooh, someone thinks my remarks are witty. My ego just grew three sizes too big. Of course, it was already about one-hundred sizes too big to begin with...
"And maybe you shouldn't wear a brown belt with black shoes...that's just tacky..." I informed him. He frowned again, which I knew he would. I'm just smart like that. And then, out of complete curiousity, he looked down to see if I was actually right about the brown belt thing. Which, I was, so he cleared his throat after and took another sip of his coffee. "Don't worry, John. I'm sure you haven't seen to many people today. You still have a chance to change your belt and redeem your reputation!" I'm nice, I can make people feel better.
"Oh, shut up. What would you know about tacky, anyways? The other day you walked in here, you were wearing two different colored shoes," he stated. Oh, I didn't think anybody noticed.
"It's a bonding thing..." I informed him.
"Between you and Jamie?" he asked, I nodded, though I'm not sure it looked like a nod with the way my head was hanging. "You two seem close..."
"I love her like I love water in my lungs..." I gave him a thumbs up. I don't know why, but he actually snorted. That snort was followed by a light chuckle. Apparently, he thinks I'm funny. I cocked an eyebrow. Of course, he couldn't see, because, as I've already mentioned about eleven times now, my head was hanging over the back of the chair.
"You really are something..." he mumbled into his coffee cup.
"Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately, though, I don't think anybody meant it in an affectionate way like you did," I informed him.
"I didn't mean it in an affection--" I held up my hand to stop him.
"Buy me a coffee and we can go into further discussion about my adorable face, dazzling intellect, and radiating charm," I stated, pointing to the coffee machine just to make sure he knew what 'Buy me Coffee' meant. And just in case you're wondering, he figured it out. He's a sharp one, no? "Where's Jamie, anyway? She's tagging along with you right?" I asked him as he handed me that beautiful fire engine red cup of plain, black coffee. Really, it had a fire engine on it and everything. But, I don't like plain coffee, which left me the alternative of piling as much sugar in as I could.
"Oh, she's uh...changing her clothes. We just got back from a traffic accident," he replied, watching me skeptically.
"Oh, God, she didn't jump in the foam again, did she?" I just knew it had something to do with the foam. Jamie loved the foam. And as Jamie usually went, her urges couldn't be resisted.
"You mean, she's done it before?" he asked, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Plenty of times. The Chief got used to it after a while. And after all the bazaar excuses she came up with afterwards..." I replied, a similar smile appearing on my face. Jamie was definately one strange character. You know, while I still believed in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Leprochauns, Jamie had told me that they didn't exist. So, one wouldn't have expected her to be as childish as she is. But get her around a large amount of foam, and you better break out the lollipops and a bottle of milk. Actually, it's not just foam, either. It's shiny things, and colorful things, too.
"You shoulda seen her face when the Cap gave her permission to ride on the engine. I swear, it was like giving a seven year old a lifetime supply of candy," he said, causing me to practically choke on my coffee as I laughed. If only he knew that I already saw her face...When she first got her job at the calendar company, she asked me to go along with her to tour her first station. The second she spotted the engine, well, it was like she shrank back about twenty years.
"Aww, after all we've been through together and you guys still poke fun when I'm not around..." Jamie poked her head into the coffee room.
"Oh, Jamie, we're not poking fun. I was just giving John a lecture about how you are officially the funniest thing since sliced funny. I woulda brought my charts to prove it, but you know how Kel gets when there's graphs laying around," I comforted her.
"The funniest thing since sliced funny, huh? That's a new one..." she remarked as she slid into a seat.
"Do you write your own material or does someone do it for you?" Roy was the next to walk in.
"Oh, I assure you, I'm strictly original. How could I ever bear to have someone doing all my work for me?" came my reply.
"Oh, sure. Which explains why you can barely dress yourself each morning," Roy pointed to my pants, which just happened to be wrinkled. What can I say, I was in a rush, this morning.
"Now, Roy, noone likes a smarty pants. Especially not nudist colonies," I informed him, holding up a finger as if to prove my point. It also made me look muy professional.
"That's good, you stay up all night thinking of that one?" he asked, fiddling with the walkie-talkie he was holding.
"Nah, got to bed around two or three maybe," I shrugged, taking another sip of my coffee. It's amazing, the relationship between Roy and me. We can bicker, we can argue, we can nit pick, we can poke fun. Yet, when all is said and done, it seems as though we never fought at all. Our fights usually consist of us never being serious in the first place. Honestly, I don't think I've ever had a real argument with Roy...geez, what kinda siblings are we? Atleast Jamie and I fight about who ate the last of the Trix...
"Well, we should probably get back to the station," John said suddenly, breaking Roy and me from our little staring contest that neither of us was even aware had started. "I think Stoker is probably gonna start missing his tail soon..." he added with a slight hint of resentment as he flashed a glanced towards Jamie.
"I can't help it! He's got a big, shiny, red, engine!" was Jamie's defense to his remark.
"Oh, see John. And what do you have? A bunch of medical supplies and a cute face! That's not gonna cut it in this day and age! You need colorful things! Shiny things!" I told John, giving him a less than reasonable lesson in dating. John cracked that crooked smile of his and said nothing more. Roy followed him out, and Jamie threw me a big grin.
"It really is a nice engine...you should see it..." she told me as I stood up and slipped my now empty coffee cup into the sink. Well...if you don't count the sugar that was still on the bottom of it...
"Judging by the large amount of scattered sketches you have in your bag, I probably will..." I informed her before we both walked out of the break room, arm in arm. What can I say? We were just close like that.
Jamie's POV
Silence...unnerving silence. John, strangely enough, hasn't said anything. I don't think he can think of anything to say. Occasionally, he would open his mouth as if he were going to say something, and then he just exhales and starts chewing on his nail. Roy...well, I don't know what is with Roy, but he's been too quiet, too. "You know, Riley is one of the most baffling women I've met to date..." THANK YOU, JOHN! I never thought I'd be more excited to hear him talk. Oh, wait...I know where this conversation is leading...
"Why?" Roy asked, even though I had a strong feeling he knew where it was going, too.
"She makes these remarks about me being attractive...but I can't tell if she's actually flirting with me...or just be sarcastic..." he replied, shifting slightly in his seat so that he was looking at Roy. Yeah, I kinda figured if would go there. Just something about the way he seemed to be entirely deep in thought since we left the hospital.
"John...for the sake of your own sanity, I'm gonna tell you now, not to try to read into Riley..." Roy stated.
"I second that..." I added, nodding my head in complete agreement with Roy. The last guy who tried ended up feeling like a tiny bug. And Riley was the exterminator, screwing with him, waiting for him to crack and run away. The guy ended up running away...more specifically, to Pennsylvania...Riley's just a scary person when it comes to the opposite sex. She told me she needed a person that wasn't going to scare easily. Someone she could actually trust to not leave her. She was searching.
"Now, I don't see what's so bad about trying to read into her. She's just a girl, right?" he said, using his hands to demonstrate what he was saying.
"Wrong..." Roy and I told him at the same time.
"If this were a cannibalistic island, she woulda tore you to itty bitty Johnny pieces a long time ago..." I said. And I realize now how disgusting that is to think about. But, it's still true, nonetheless. Sad, isn't it? Like every other woman, Riley thinks about marriage, about kids. Actually, Riley is more of a girl than I am. I don't consider marriage that much. Actually, I just try not to think about things that could be upsetting. I had maybe...three boyfrieds my entire life. None were adequate, none were up to my standards. I still consider myself young. Besides, with all the time I spend on my art, who has time for relationships?
"ROY LOOK OUT!"
to be continued...
